Narrative: I. b.

New Mexico’s State Workforce Development Board (SWDB) led the development of NM’s Combined Plan. The SWDB charged the Department of Workforce Solutions to facilitate a series of workgroups with core and required partners to craft required sections of NM’s plan and to work together to ensure the vision and goals established by Governor Lujan Grisham provided the base for the strategies, activities and services outlined in the plan.

The foundation of NM’s plan is built upon data, partnerships and resources to implement strategies that support operations in providing services to job seekers and employers. NM is committed to changing and/or adjusting its work to meet the state’s workforce needs. NM’s core and required partners have maintained a strong working partnership since the inception of WIOA and over the span of the last four years met at least quarterly to review policy, performance and practice. This plan reflects upon lessons learned over the last four years and ideas for innovating the workforce system even further. 

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) reforms planning requirements to foster better alignment of federal investments in job training, integrate service delivery across programs, improve efficiency in service delivery, and ensure that the workforce system is job-driven and matches employers with skilled individuals. Under WIOA, the State Plan communicates the State’s vision for the New Mexico workforce system and serves as a vehicle for aligning and integrating this system across federal programs. This strategic plan accomplishes one of WIOA’s principal areas of reform which is to plan across core programs. As such, the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions submits this Combined State Plan, as modified, under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to the U.S. Secretary of Labor outlining a four-year workforce development strategy for New Mexico’s workforce development system. The Combined Plan includes the six core programs plus five Combined Plan partner programs, as listed below.

•              Adult Program (WIOA Title I)

•              Dislocated Worker Program (WIOA Title I)

•              Youth Program (WIOA Title I)

•              Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Program (WIOA Title II)

•              Wagner-Peyser Act Program (Wagner-Peyser Act, as amended by title III)

•              Vocational Rehabilitation Program (Title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by Title IV)

•              Jobs for Veterans State Grants Program (Programs authorized under 38, U.S.C. 4100 et. seq.)

•              Senior Community Service Employment Program (Title V of the Older Americans Act of 1965)

•              Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF)

•              Employment and Training Programs under the Supplemental and Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

•              Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers Program

Michelle Lujan Grisham, Governor of the State of New Mexico has shared a vision for the state workforce development system which incorporates six specific goals to create a more resilient, responsive, and results-oriented workforce development system that moves New Mexicans toward greater economic prosperity.

The workforce system in New Mexico is a network of state, regional, and local agencies and organizations that provide a range of employment, education, training, and related services and supports to help all jobseekers, including those with barriers to employment, secure good jobs while providing businesses with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy.

New Mexico’s workforce service delivery system provides services to jobseeker and business customers throughout thirty-three counties covering 121,298.2 square mile radius, fifth largest land mass in the nation, where an estimated 2,085,572 people call New Mexico home. The designated four regional Workforce Development Areas in New Mexico include Central, Eastern, Northern and Southwestern. Each Workforce Development Area has a Local Workforce Development Board that administers employment and training programs through the Workforce Connection Centers, which are proud partners of the American Job Center Network. Service integration involves co-location of partners, where appropriate; collaborative partnerships in which service integration eliminates duplication and improves efficiency; functional alignment where staff are organized by function not funding stream for seamless service delivery within each center. These centers serve as the central point for WIOA partners, and their unique programs and cross training of employees in many programs enhances customer service and provides both job seekers and employers with easy access to information.

Through this Combined State Plan, New Mexico aims to share understanding of the workforce needs across the state and enhance more comprehensive and integrated approaches for addressing the needs of businesses and workers, including individuals with barriers to employment. Focused on meeting the objectives and priorities for the development of a competitive workforce, core partners and various stakeholders came together to prioritize, strategize and assemble a plan for meeting federal and state goals for creating this plan. In addition, the State Workforce Board is working to convene committees, as appropriate, to guide ongoing strategic planning. As such, this plan reflects an enhancement in coordination and partnerships with local entities and supportive service agencies for strengthened service delivery to the state’s various populations. The strategies in this WIOA Combined State Plan are based on an analysis of the economic, workforce, and workforce development for New Mexico and its regions.

In an effort to solicit public response, the New Mexico WIOA Combined State Plan was posted on the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions’ website and distributed electronically to the State and Local Workforce Development Boards for review and comment. Additionally, both unified and combined state partners shared distribution lists, and New Mexico First sent coordinated communications from November-February to solicit public engagement in both written feedback as well as participation in 4 public forums held in the north/central and southern parts of New Mexico.  The Department of Workforce solutions did targeted outreach to youth serving organizations, schools, and youth development programs to engage youth perspectives. New Mexico First also leveraged their data base of over 16,000 contacts, website, and social media to encourage public comment.  The New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry, the State Economic Development Department, local Chambers of Commerce, and other statewide organizations also helped to spread information about the multiple opportunities for public comment.

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions hosted four community input sessions in the northern/central part of New Mexico and in southern NM, facilitated by New Mexico First. In each location, a session was designed for the general public and for youth specific input into New Mexico’s plan.  On February 21, 2020, 187 people attended from the general public in Albuquerque.  28 youth attended the general session in Albuquerque.  On February 27, 2020, 79 people attended from the general public and 14 people attended the youth session. 

Accommodations were made to increase inclusion and reduce barriers to participation in the outreach and implementation of these community input sessions.  Closed captioning and ASL were provided and materials were disseminated in advance. Participants represented middle, high school, and college students, K-12 and higher education, AmeriCorp members, for profit and non-profit employers and employees, health and social service providers, attorneys, entrepreneurs, job developers, and state and regional Department of Workforce Solution’s staff and contractors. There were 12 types of businesses/organizations.

 At the community input meetings, participants engaged in a combination of shared learning with an introductory overview of the plan, small group discussions comprised of diverse stakeholders, and large group discussion and reporting out of themes from the small group table discussions.  Tables were each provided with a written conversation guide to systematically explore concerns, suggestions, and areas of support for the draft state plan.  Notes were documented, collected, and transcribed from the small group discussions.  A transcript of the large group discussion was also created as a public record of community input.  This data was analyzed and organized by question topic and across themes in the responses by New Mexico First, a non-profit organization with 33+ years of experiencing in facilitating deliberative consensus-building efforts related to a broad range of public policy areas.